Oct 09 10 |
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Life on Discovery has settled into a bit of a routine over the last few days. Autosub has gone out during the day, recently doing dives right over the top of the seamount, and Hybis has had its chance in the evening, exploring the steep slopes on the sides of the mountain. Autosub has had a few problems with the batteries, just to keep us fault detection guys happy, but otherwise has performed flawlessly. They’ve been testing its obstacle avoidance by giving it a command to drive to the opposite side of the seamount at a fixed distance above the bottom and seeing how well it avoids the cliffs. Today it did it at 50m altitude. Tomorrow they’re trying at 20.
The missions that are drawing a crowd these days are Hybis’. Last night it produced some great video of the side of the seamount, with lots of interest for biologists (there aren’t any on-board, but I’m fascinated) and geologists. We saw lobsters, sponges, soft corals and fish, plus cliffs formed of lava that once spilled down the sides of the seamount. We haven’t seen any evidence of recent volcanic activity, but you never know!
Glass sponge and whip corals from Hybis video.
A lobster attacks Hybis!
As well as taking pictures, Hybis has also brought up a few specimens, including some lovely intricate glass sponges.
A glass sponge, brought up in Hybis' scoop.
And for Anna, I thought I should blog this evening’s dessert. If anything, the food is getting better as the cruise continues. 
The picture you've all been waiting for. Tonight's dinner featured black forest gateau.
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Show all locationsEntry for Saturday, 10th October 2009 by
Richard, filed under 
Nature, Technology, Travel.
Location 
PortugalTagged with
cakes. Series 
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10 Responses to “What you’ve been waiting for… Cake!”
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Not much to say except –
Are the battery problems related to running them at ambient pressure
…and is that lobster really that colour?!
The lobster really is that colour. We’ve seen quite a few more since then.
The battery problems are partly I think because they just have slightly too many cells crammed into each box, so it’s easy to damage stuff when they’re getting them in and out. Some of it might be pressure related too – some of the problems seem to be due to connections between boards in each battery, which might move slightly with the pressure. A lot of the big problems are with connectors – it’s very easy to not quite do a connector up tightly enough and then fill it with water.
Come on; back to the interesting stuff please! We need more cake pictures – maybe even an in depth report from the ship’s galley…
“…an in depth report…” Presumably no pun intended
Venturing into the galley is an adventure I’m not brave enough to undertake.
I’ll see what I can do on the cake side though. It was triple chocolate mousse last night
, but I forgot to take a camera with me. Tomorrow’s our last night onboard. I’m sure there’ll be something special!
Leftovers
Hope you have a big party for your last night… we want lots of pictures.
News article form ITN.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20100412/tuk-british-team-finds-so-called-hell-on-dba1618.html